Australia scrap day-night Test after India refusal

The sun sets during the third day-night Test cricket match between Australia and South Africa at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide on November 26, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Peter PARKS

Cricket Australia had pencilled in the December 6-10 Test in Adelaide as a pink-ball match but India baulked at playing under floodlights.

Australia have been forced to scrap a day-night Test and will hold the game in normal hours instead after India refused to play, cricket officials said Tuesday.

Cricket Australia had pencilled in the December 6-10 Test in Adelaide as a pink-ball match but India baulked at playing under floodlights.

“We can confirm that we have received advice from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that it is not prepared to participate in a proposed day-night Test in Adelaide this summer,” CA chief James Sutherland said in a statement.

“As a result, we can now confirm this Test match will be a day format.”

CA believes day-night Test cricket is a more television-friendly format and perhaps the only way to save the five-day version of the game following the rise of the quickfire Twenty20 format.

But India, who are the world’s top-ranked team, said they didn’t want to play their first day-night Test during such a high-profile series.

“Yes, it’s pretty clear that we are not playing a day-night Test in Australia, no doubt about it,” BCCI administrator Vinod Rai told AFP earlier this month.

The Australians have played four day-night Tests since 2015, three of them in Adelaide, winning all of them.

India have not yet played a pink-ball Test and would be reluctant to give the hosts any advantage as they seek a first Test series win in Australia.

“I think everyone in world cricket knows that, to be frank, I think (India) want to come out here and beat us,” Sutherland told Australia’s SEN Radio in early May.

Sutherland said Australia would still play a day-night Test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane in January.

“We are committed to hosting at least one day-night Test each home summer as part of our continued focus to grow Test cricket,” he said.